Once Upon a Twilight!: Blog Tour: 3:59 | Gretchen McNeil | Review

Welcome to our stop on the 3:59 blog tour for Gretchen McNeil. This tour is hosted by Book Nerd Tours and schedule can be found here. Here at OUaT we are HUGE fans of Gretchen's books so we were super excited to take part in her latest release.

3:59
Author: Gretchen McNeil
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Mystery/Paranormal/Thriller
Release Date: September 17th 2013
Review Source: HarperTeen

Josie Byrne's life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she's betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can't get worse.

Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m.

Jo's life is everything Josie wants: she's popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they're just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo.

Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo's perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.

But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo's boyfriend, he hates her. Jo's mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh.

By the end of the day, Josie is desperate to return to her own life. But there’s a problem: Jo has sealed the portal, trapping Josie in this dangerous world. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late?

From master of suspense Gretchen McNeil comes a riveting and deliciously eerie story about the lives we wish we had – and how they just might kill you.

You saw that I mention we are HUGE fans of Gretchen's books right? OK, good. Making sure that was understood before I get further into my thoughts. 3:59 falls into same category that Gretchen's other books fall. That mysterious thriller with its paranormal elements. Which is WHAT I LOVE about her books. You are always on the edge of your seat-biting-nails-shaking-your-foot-freaking out on what's coming next. 3:59 did not disappoint in that aspect. I was only a bit thrown back with the scientific talk, It was a bit too much to try and figure out at midnight as I'm reading the book. So it did distract just a bit for me from the story, but other than that I love the concept of 3:59. The whole parallel universe type story with creatures was new and thrilling.

Well its very simple. Enough to intrigue you with the title and a partial face. My favorite Gretchen book cover is Possess. Its creepy but in a beautiful way, lol!

There is plenty of action to get your hearts pumping. You have two parallel universe that are affecting same set of characters and one of the sets has a plan to get rid of the other and its constant running and figuring out how to stop said parties. Which side will prevail is the question.

When you think you have an idea whats going on, you are thrown a curve ball and once again are left thinking what is going on. Monsters and science mixed up create some really creepy mysterious plots for these characters.

Love work in mysterious ways goes the saying. Well in 3:59 you are a witness to that saying. True love will always find each other be it in this universe or the next.

Josie was written as a strong character that didn't leave you want to kick her butt into place. Not like her doppelgänger Jo, now she needed a beatin. Josie, never gave up and that to me makes you a hero.

Penelope is the winner. And when I say Penelope, i mean both of them. They were equal parts awesome. She was just the right kind of character to add to this story.

The concept on how at 3:59 every day the parallel universe would appear through a mirror. I have read many books and never have I come across one that had a plot written like that. Its was definitely cool.

The ending! I wont disclose what happens but its part of the reason also I gave the book a lower rating. It was just something I ended up felling very conflicted about. I also felt it left it open for more but Gretchen doesn't write series books, so I'm guessing it is what it is regarding the ending.

Yes I would because overall its a great story. A small bump here and there but that never stop me before. Its a quick read and actually pretty cool now that Halloween is fast approaching.

Yes I will keep a copy right by the other 2 Gretchen books I currently owned.

About the Author:

Singer. Writer. Clown.

Gretchen is repped by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown. Her YA horror/paranormal POSSESS debuts with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins, August 23, 2011. Her second novel, TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – also with Balzer + Bray is tentatively scheduled for a Fall 2012 release.

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4′s Code Monkeys and she currently sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. She is a founding member of vlog group theYARebels where she can be seen as “Monday,” and she is an active member of both The Enchanted Inkpot, a group blog of YA and middle grade fantasy writers, and The Apocalypsies, a group blog of 2012 children’s debut authors.